(In the same interview, Putin made
two other statements, problematic if not in fact false. On the one hand, he
said Russia, unlike Western countries, doesn’t have a problem with immigrants of
“a different religion,” despite all the problems it does have with Central
Asian gastarbeiters. And on the other, he said that Christians and Muslims in
Russia identify as Russians and therefore “we will be able to overcome all
sensitive” religious and ethnic issues, again despite all the evidence of
problems in both areas.)

“With regard to the
fall of births,” journalists Margarita Panchenkova and Tatyana Domskaya report,
“the social block of the government is proposing a package of measures to
stimulate it.” All existing measures would be maintained and extended further
into the future, and new ones would be added.

Such things would be very expensive
and the finance ministry is resisting, calling for shortening the planned
extension of maternal capital payments and not taking other steps. In addition
to its arguments based on the availability of money, the finance ministry
people stress that Russia is now in a demographic “hole” much like the one it
was in during the 1990s.

“After the baby boom of the 2000s,”
the journalists continue, “the number of births began to fall,” with 10.1
percent fewer Russian citizens born in the first quarter of 2017 than in the
same period of a year earlier.It is the
waves of the number of women in prime childbearing cohorts that is most
important, some experts say, not any government program.

The finance ministry is prepared to
extend some existing programs in maternal capital on two conditions: it will be
paid “only in regions where births are lower than the average for Russia and in
regions with natural outmigration,” and setting a maximum income for those
receiving benefits. The article doesn’t say but these steps would mean
significant shift of resources away from predominantly Russian ones to
predominantly Muslim ones.

The social block of the government
also wants to promote programs that will lower the age of first births, but
experts say that “there is a risk that a woman who before 25 is not able to
receive an education and acquire a profession, will leave the labor market,”
something that would hurt the economy by “sharpening the problem of the deficit
of workers.”

Another factor pushing down
birthrates is the worldwide trend toward smaller families, but a more immediate
one for Russia is the dramatic decline in the economy and the increase in poverty
and fears about the future.If Moscow
really wants to address the birthrate, it must focus on these issues, something
the Kremlin shows no interest in doing.

Appended to the article is a chart showing projected declines in the birthrate and overall population of Russia and increases in the death rate over the next several decades, all figures that most Russian experts accept as true even if Putin says something else to an American interviewer and expects to be believed.